ESB Customer Supply and Group Services committed safety champions
More than 60 staff, representing all businesses in the directorate, gathered on the 8th May to identify areas for improvement. Those attending formed a lively mix of people: some were long standing members of safety committees while others were taking the opportunity to become involved in safety issues for the first time.
The day started with an address by Bríd Horan, Executive Director who outlined the need to build on the progress achieved over the last number of years in relation to safety and health matters. Bríd stressed the importance of embedding the improvements which have already been achieved and of moving to the next level to achieve an injury-free work environment for all.
Bríd's address also acknowledged that while each business has its own set of risks that must be managed, there are also common experiences and processes such as office working, 'near miss' reporting and contractor management, where we can work together and share learning.
An interesting, external perspective was provided by guest speaker, Sean Corrigan, Group Health, Safety and Environmental Manager with Bank of Ireland, who spoke about the importance of keeping it simple and 'telling personal stories' to make the safety challenge real and easily understandable for each of us, particularly where risk was 'perceived' to be low.
The most important part of the seminar followed: four workshops, each involving fifteen people who were invited to discuss specific areas. The areas addressed were:
- Better use of behaviour-based auditing by considering how behaviour-based auditing can be improved to add more value.
- An injury prevention and learning approach based on communicating the learning from 'near miss' reports and implementing follow-up actions.
- Improving safety awareness in an office based work environment by considering how to make current safety systems and processes more relevant and meaningful to an office environment.
- What is required to consistently achieve zero injuries by considering how to maintain an improving trend and then moving to having zero injuries on a repeatable basis.
The afternoon was devoted to each group presenting their recommendations. A number of clear messages came forward from the lively presentations, which are now being worked on and which will form the basis of an agreed improvement programme across Customer Supply and Group Services.
One of the key messages to emerge was that while substantial progress has been made, we must build on this and create a zero injury workplace.
A greater emphasis needs to be placed on follow-up and communication of lessons learned as well as more sharing of common processes and best practices. The importance of 'telling the story' from injuries, near misses and safety audits, and not just relying on statistics was highlighted. Recent initiatives, aimed at further raising the profile of health and wellbeing was welcomed.
Feedback from everyone has been very positive, particularly in terms of the opportunity for open discussion among such a large group and the potential for applying common approaches in some areas.
In closing what was a very successful safety and health seminar, Bríd thanked everyone for their continued commitment to bringing about an injury free work environment and for their energetic contribution throughout the day, particularly in the workshops. She looked forward to their ongoing contribution as 'committed safety champions'.
